Now that Bagging Season is back in full swing, it's time to fill in some gaps from last year's adventures. First off, Westray, from the second half of our Orkney trip. 

The morning of our Westray bag we awoke in Stronsay, and I nervously awaited a phone call or note from the monks who may have been able to take us to Papa Stronsay. Some twist of fate descended however, and I missed the call and was resigned to watch the monks sail across the water without us on board, and no amount of waving would turn them around. It was very gracious of them to leave a message on my answerphone though, it panged at the time as they offered us not only a boat trip over but also a brief tour of their monastery. Maybe on our next trip to Orkney! Anyhow, the time for our next flight was upon us so we made use of the local taxi who rolled us up promptly to the airport.

Westray Thumbs Up

A short flight over to Westray followed, then an Orkney Mile down into Pierowall, the island's main town/village/hamlet. The road took us along green fields, curious cows, potential tidals, and finally the gentle, sweeping bay Pierowall is nestled upon. With a cider at a hotel pub and without too much trouble, we located our accommodation, The Barn, and dropped off our bags. We got the idea that hiring a car for the day would be our best hope for checking out Westray, so we headed back out to see what we could find. Luck was on our side and we managed to snag a rather hilariously decrepit Toyota from a charming native Westraylian (coined!), although to be fair it only cost us about £20 for the day AND it had a CD player.

Pierowall

After topping up on Bru and pies from the local shop we rumbled along to our first stop: Noltland Castle, a 16th Century category A-listed building. We had a good look around, read all the signs and learnt a bit about Z-Plan forms before continuing on to Noup Head. We strolled along the coastal path that took us up to Noup Head Lighthouse, which stands at the beginnings of a dizzying set of cliffs that are home to some of Orkney's largest colonies of sea birds. I tried to impress everyone by pointing out gannets, but the gang weren't receptive of such a feat. The birds swooped and squawked all around us as we sat and ate our lunches precariously dangling over the edge of the rocks, the sea roaring and crashing 100 feet below, humbling island panorama in all directions.

Noltland Castle

Coo

The Noup

The Sea

Our next stop was to be a place marked Langskaill on the map, at the far south of Westray. The aim was to reach what appeared to be a small island just offshore that we had noticed on some of the available maps, but we had no further information than that. It didn't seem too difficult to at least have a little look at the situation, despite the worsening weather, so we parked up the car in a very convenient free parking space in the centre of Langskaill and got a stomp on. Navigating the local cows was the most challenging aspect of this mini-quest and I think we can all agree that Sam was the most scared - although it's surprising how contagious fear can be! We made the first pass peacefully, and were soon along the coast enough to be able to make out a distinct shape aside from the mainland.

Bagging Bakie Skerry

Enemy Coos

As we crossed over the rocky causeway (the tide was out at the time), we looked for clues as to whether enough of it might remained uncovered when the tide came in. There were pools of water everywhere and also no soil or vegetation, aside from what had been trampled through by the apparently-island-bagging-cows, which boosted our confidence that all of it spent some time underwater. We took some pictures, checked out the mounds of stones which may or may not have been a thing once, got worried that we might not make it back over to the mainland in time, and busted back to the car with only minor scares on our second pass of the cows. Upon later research, we identified this island as being Bakie Skerry.

And that basically concludes our day's adventuring, topped off with a snug evening in The Barn's extremely comfortable loft living room.

The Making Of...Island Bagging